In the Shadow of Black Rock 1956 Anna May Wright ~SIGNED ~Woman's memoir of life in rural Oregon, Idaho & Washington ~ Walla Walla, John Day

Title: In the Shadow of Black Rock

Author: Anna May Wright

Description: Signed by author on title page. First Edition stated. Boards in pale-blue cloth with black lettering on spine. Some general discoloration to boards. Interior is clean and unmarked. Frontispiece portrait of author. Dust jacket heavily rubbed with some colored-scuffing on its rear panel; not price clipped ($3.75); in an archival mylar sleeve. 284 pages.

The fascinating autobiographical account of Anna May (Bills) McKay McLey Wright Platt (1885-1962), born to a pioneer family in Wenatchee, Washington and who either lived in or spent time in many different small towns and rural areas in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Her memoir describes her family's life, farming and ranching, traveling, adventures and tragedies, financial struggles, raising kids, all the while seeming to meander through many towns throughout the Pacific Northwest, mostly but not limited to the area encompassed by the three points of Antelope, Oregon, Walla Walla, Washington and Twin Falls, Idaho. (Though this is an autobiography, the author notes that she did change the names of many characters to avoid any embarrassment.)

''... a chronological account of pioneer women of the Northwest, particularly Mrs. Wright and her mother... In the beginning, the author tells how her father [Amos Bills] drowned in the John Day River near Fossil, Or., leaving her with ten children and five dollars. Stories of an Indian massacre; of cattle and horse rustlers, about whom Anna May learned to keep her mouth shut; children lost in tall rye; no-account husband who drank and gambled... she lived on two homesteads, her mother's in Oregon; the other belonged to one of her four husbands, of whom she writes freely, and was located near Walla Walla, Wash.'' --Oregon Daily Journal, Jan. 25, 1957.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good

Publisher: Vantage Press
Place: New York
Year: 1956

Keywords: autobiography, biography, memoir, pioneer, women, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Anna May Bills, Anna May Platt, homesteading,